Building on its major educational campaign Infection Prevention and You focusing on hospital infection prevention, the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC) introduced educational materials for long-term care, home care, and ambulatory care to help patients stay safe from infections.

Introduced in concert with International Infection Prevention Week (IIPW), October 14-20, 2012, the new Infection Prevention and You campaign materials help guide important conversations patients should hold with their healthcare team to prevent infection. IIPW provides a focal point to empower stakeholders, including patients and their families, in taking an active role to prevent infection.

In addition to empowering patients and their families to speak up to prevent infection, it is the first consumer campaign of its kind designed to educate consumers about infection preventionists—dedicated experts who partner with the broader healthcare team and implement evidence-based methods to prevent healthcare-associated infections.

“Patients often feel intimidated in the healthcare setting and may not know what to say or what do to stay safe,” said APIC Communications Committee Chair Ann Marie Pettis, RN, BSN, CIC, who assisted in developing the campaign content. “Due to the growing need to help patients in non-acute care settings understand the active role they can play to prevent infections, we customized the campaign material for long-term, home, and ambulatory care. We hope that these materials will be used to promote quality and patient safety initiatives.”

APIC’s Infection Prevention and You campaign material is available in a variety of formats, including posters, brochures, and fliers. Individual healthcare organizations can also customize the material by adding their logos and the contact information for their infection prevention department.

APIC’s mission is to create a safer world through prevention of infection. The association’s more than 14,000 members direct infection prevention programs that save lives and improve the bottom line for hospitals and other healthcare facilities. APIC advances its mission through patient safety, implementation science, competencies and certification, advocacy, and data standardization. For consumer health information, visit www.apic.org/patientsafety.Follow us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/apic and “like” APIC's Facebook page: www.facebook.com/APICInfectionPreventionandYou.